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Thursday, May 26, 2016

District admn. is admitting meritorious students from poor families in reputed colleges for free
When stories of private colleges charging hefty fees are doing the rounds across the State, a silent revolution is under way in Bidar. The district administration, using nothing but goodwill, is admitting meritorious students from poor families in reputed private colleges, free.

Around 300 students were admitted in 2014 and around 450 choose good private schools in an open counselling session in 2015. And, as Wednesday’s results showed, they have done well too. In a district with an average pass percentage of 52, the pass percentage in this group of children is 72.

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A quick analysis showed that 23 students of the 2014 batch had achieved distinction, 114 scored a First Class, 30 passed in Second Class and two cleared in Pass class. Officials are yet to trace the results of around 70 other students, till Wednesday evening.

Of the 233 whose results were available, 167 had passed, but 64 could not clear the examination.

In 2014, a team led by P.C. Jaffer, the then Deputy Commissioner, organised a written test in Kannada, Marathi, Urdu and English for students who had completed SSLC examination.

Later, a mass counselling session was organised in the Zilla Rang Mandir that allowed students to choose colleges. Students were ranked on the basis of their marks in PU and the selection test. Those who scored the highest got to choose first.

The procedure was repeated, with some refinements in 2015. Students from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and minority communities and girls were placed in hostels run by the department of Social Welfare, Backward Classes and Minorities Development and Women and Child Development.

Some colleges also housed students in their hostels for free or at subsidised fees.

Sai Kumar, who came from a poor farm family, has scored 95 per cent marks. He chose Shaheen PU College in Humnabad during counselling.

The college committee waived not only his tuition fees but also canteen and hostel fees. He has scored 99 in Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Kannada. He has scored 96 in Mathematics and 82 in English. He is hoping to get a seat in the Bidar Institute of Medical Sciences as it would help him commute from his native town of Humnabad.

“We are inspired by this initiative, and we will continue it,” says Anurag Tewari, Deputy Commissioner. This unique scheme is an extension of the spirit of the Right to Education Act. It helps both the colleges and students, he said.

“The average fee in private PU Colleges is in the range of Rs. 30,000 to Rs 60,000. Each poor family that send its children to colleges under this scheme has saved between Rs. 50,000 and Rs. 1 lakh in two years,” says Inayat Ali Shindhe, Education Officer, who is coordinating the scheme

Karnataka government has submitted a ₹274-crore proposal to the Centre for developing a tourism circuit in drought-hit Bidar district with an aim to create alternative jobs. The proposal has been submitted to the Union Tourism Ministry under the central scheme Swadesh Darshan which promotes integrated development of theme-based circuit.

“We have submitted a ₹274-crore proposal to develop a tourism circuit connecting Bidar fort, Basavakalayan fort and Gulbarga fort. A presentation was also made and the proposal was discussed in detail in a recent meeting,” Bidar Deputy Commissioner Anurag Tewari, told PTI.

A day after her husband feared that she had been kidnapped, the police traced Jija Bai, a Bidar Taluk Panchayat member, at Nelamangala near Bengaluru.

Dhanu Singh, a farmer from Honnikeri in Humnabad taluk, lodged a complaint at the Janawada police station that Jija Bai had been kidnapped. He feared a political conspiracy in the episode, as her vote was crucial in electing the Bidar Taluk Panchayat president.

A team, led by Circle inspector Ali Sab, looked into Jija Bai’s phone call records and traced her location near Bengaluru. They left by jeep and found her. She, however, denied that she had been kidnapped. She said that she and other Independent members of the panchayat had come on a tour of Bengaluru and other places. She also said that she was returning to Bidar on Friday. She is travelling with the police officers and is expected to reach the city by Saturday.

Independent members hold the key in the hung Bidar Taluk Panchayat. The House has 26 members, of which 11 were elected on Congress ticket. There are four Janata Dal(S) members and three owe allegiance to the BJP. The House has one Karnataka Makkala Paksha member and seven Independents.

The district administration has proposed to plant 50 lakh saplings across the district this year with active public participation.

Anurag Tewari, Deputy Commissioner, in a meeting with officials on Friday, said that the drought had taught two important lessons – the need for water conservation and afforestation.

He said work on cleaning and reusing traditional water bodies, such as open wells, tanks and temple kalyanis was taken up vigorously. “We hope to achieve the same level of success in the plantation project,” he said.

As per the plan, each of the four lakh families in the district will be given five saplings that are fruit bearing, flower bearing or vegetables of plantation variety, such as drum stick. The families will be in-charge of protecting and watering them for the first three years.

Seedlings will also be planted in schools and colleges and students will be asked to adopt at least two trees on the campus. All government offices, panchayat raj institutions, hospitals and government aided institutions will plant the saplings, apart from non-governmental organisations, cooperative and private institutions. Temples, dargahs, churches, gurudwaras and other places of worship will also be encouraged to participate.

Planting will be taken up on priority in the 200-odd parks in Bidar and other cities. The bunds of all tanks and lakes, and areas near open wells will be covered in the tree plantation drive. Planting of saplings in empty spaces in industrial areas and stone quarries will be closely monitored.

Resident welfare associations and leaders of various groups will be made members of monitoring committees to look after the trees. A government officer will be a coordinator of the committee. Each tree will be given a code that will be monitored by the Deputy Commissioner’s office.

Tall seedlings will be planted on the both sides of the national highway that runs for nearly 80 km in the district. Companies, contractors and other agencies involved in road building will be asked to contribute to the project, he said. Varieties, like neem and pongamia, that do not need additional protection like tree guards will be preferred for road side plantation.

Forest department will plant nearly 20 lakh trees in the nearly four lakh hectares of unclassified forest and non-cultivated land in the district. The zilla panchayat will plant five lakh trees. Some private companies have agreed to plant or support the plantation of 25 lakh saplings, Mr. Tewari said.

Hong Kong (HKSAR) - The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (May 13) that in view of a notification from the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) about an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in Bidar District, Karnataka State of India, it has banned the import of poultry meat and products (including poultry eggs) from the district concerned with immediate effect to protect public health in Hong Kong.

A CFS spokesman said that Hong Kong did not import any poultry meat or poultry eggs from India last year and in the first three months of this year.

"The CFS has contacted the Indian authorities over the issue and will closely monitor information issued by the OIE on avian influenza outbreaks in the country. Appropriate action will be taken in response to the development of the situation," the spokesman said.

The project to clean and dredge tanks and wells taken up successfully in Bidar district will now be replicated across the State.

‘Kere Sanjivini’ scheme to clean and dredge tanks and wells, will be implemented in drought-hit districts.

Recently, the State government released Rs. 25 crore to be divided among 136 drought-hit taluks.

A government order suggests that the Panchayat Raj Engineering Department execute the scheme using machines like earth movers, to ensure that work is fast and completed before the monsoon.

“Taking up cleaning and dredging manually under MNREGA will be slow and the amount of silt removed will be less compared to that done by machines,” says the order.

The drought has pushed down the ground water aquifer in several areas and it needs to be replenished with rain water. To ensure this, silt in water bodies like tanks and wells needs to be removed. They need to be cleaned and protected.

The work should be started immediately and should be ideally completed before the onset of rains, so that they are ready to receive and store rain water in the next few months, according to the order.

“Senior officers have told us that Rs. 100 crore will be released for the project in phases,” Pavan Kumar Malpati, zilla panchayat Chief Executive Officer, said.

“Officials say that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was impressed with the work of dredging that he saw in Aurad taluk. He remarked that this was a good model and could be replicated,” Anurag Tewari, Deputy Commissioner, said.

“We achieved three things with this project: we cleaned the traditional water bodies so that they can impound maximum water in monsoon, we asked farmers to take away top soil for free and also found water in some tanks,” he said.

Three agencies, the Nirmiti Kendra, the zilla panchayat and the District Urban Development Cell, have cleaned 100 wells and 25 tanks. “At least 110 have got water,” said Balbhim Kamble, project director, DUDC. “Our target is to dredge all public wells and tanks and 400 temple Kalyanis across the district,” he said.

“The open well at Labour Colony in Bidar, for example, is yielding so much water that the whole colony is getting water from there,” says Vinay Malge, coordinator of Team Yuva, the NGO that is working with the government in this project.

Project to clean and dredge tanks and wells was first taken up in Bidar district

The Department of Health and Family Welfare has taken up the task of testing water sources, across the district, to try and avoid the spread of epidemics.

“Due to scarcity, people are drinking whatever water is available. In some cases, it may come from contaminated sources. We want to test as many sources as possible and create awareness among the people about avoiding their usage,” a senior officer said.

At a meeting of district and taluk officials, Baburao Hudgikar, District Health and Family Planning Officer, said that laboratories in government hospitals would be used for this purpose.

If tests prove that water from a particular source is infected, the panchayat development officer or the urban local body officers concerned should be informed, Dr. Hudgikar said.

He also asked officials to test waters of wells and tanks that had started yielding water after they were cleaned recently.

Officials should also create awareness about how to clean water from infected sources, including boiling and filtering, he said. Officers like M.A. Jabbar, Anil Chintamani, Ravindra Sirasagi, Sharanappa Mudbi, Ninganagouda Biradar, Mallikarjun Sadashiv, Nagashetty Muttange, Yesudas, Mounadas, Christadas and others were present.